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Why Should I Choose a Small College Over a Large University?

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There’s a lot to consider when choosing your college. It’s a big choice and it can be stressful.

It’s a common trope in television for high school characters to obsess over getting into a “good college”, but what makes a college good? Is it prestige? Religious affiliation? It’s easy to say that the quality of the programs offered is what makes a college good, but program quality varies from program to program in any given college. Sure, you have ivy league colleges and universities where almost every program has a great reputation, but those universities aren’t always accessible. Besides, even within ivy league schools and others on that level, all programs have strengths and weaknesses.

In general terms, Stanford and MIT are the best choices for tech, while others might be a better choice for law or business. Five out of the top ten schools for undergraduate education programs aren’t even ivy league schools. If there is no “best college” out there, what’s a future college student to do when faced with the choice of which school to attend?

The answer is, find the best school for you. A school that meets your needs. A school that has exactly the program you want. A school where you will feel comfortable on the campus. A school or program that uses the style of classes best suited to your learning style. This will be different for different people.

The goal of this article is to help you decide whether a small college or university might meet your needs better than a large or mid-sized college or university. There is no official designation of small, mid-sized, or large, but the consensus seems to define small colleges as having an undergraduate population of fewer than 2,000 to 3,000 students. Therefore, any colleges referenced as an example throughout this article will be under 3,000 students.

In this article, we will look at the pros and cons of small colleges and universities as compared to large colleges and universities. The goal is to help bring clarity to you as you search for a school. Everybody is looking for different things in their college, but rest assured that choosing a small college doesn’t mean sacrificing as much as you may think. Besides, a smaller college can be very beneficial. So, let’s get started.

Should I choose a small college instead of a large one?

Majors and Programs

Image of words for college majors for our FAQ about small colleges vs. large universities When you look at a large college, you might be impressed by the massive number of programs available. Having a lot of choices can feel good, especially if you aren’t sure what you want to major in yet. Once you decide on your major, though, only one program really matters: the one in which you intend to enroll. Eventually, you’ll choose a major, and when you do, all the other majors in the school matter a lot less than the one you choose.

One of the things the best small colleges and universities offer is focus. They have a smaller selection of majors, but that allows those majors to receive more administrative and institutional attention. There is a good chance that smaller colleges may actually be ahead of the curve in certain majors the institution specializes in. Smaller colleges often blend subjects in interesting ways as well, or teach them from different angles than larger universities with more boilerplate programs.

For instance, Harvey Mudd College is a liberal arts university, and a school with incredible STEM programs. It’s popular these days to cast liberal arts and STEM as opposed to one another. STEM degrees are valuable and liberal arts degrees make it hard to find a job. However, this is a false distinction. Harvey Mudd teaches STEM from a liberal arts perspective, so students gain an understanding of both the subject they’re studying and its historical context and cultural implications. Maybe you haven’t heard of Harvey Mudd before. It’s a very small school, with under 1,000 undergraduate students, and on paper, it’s very expensive. But the school has good financial aid (students graduate with an average of $25,000 in student loan debt compared to MIT whose students graduate with around $30,000).

Is a degree from this very small college worth it? Well, it consistently ranks in the top two best value schools according to payscale.com. Students graduating from Harvey Mudd have a slightly higher 20 year net return on investment than students graduating from MIT, and Harvey Mudd is unapologetically a liberal arts college. Don’t be too quick to write off small liberal arts schools as possibly good choices when it comes to STEM. Smaller colleges can also be a great choice if you’re interested in a specialized or military-related major. For instance, SUNY Maritime College has an undergraduate population under 1,800 and is a great school for many STEM programs, but it is especially good if you are interested in a seafaring profession. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has an undergraduate population of under 2,400 and is a great choice for students interested in various types of aviation jobs. So, if you have a good idea of the career you want, check out what schools might be more specialized in that particular area. Many of them will be small colleges and universities.

Opportunities

Image of a compass for our FAQ about small colleges vs. large universities Every college and university in the United States offers a number of academic and extracurricular activities. Whether you’re interested in sports, student government, clubs, or research opportunities, you will find something available in both large and small colleges.

However, the number of opportunities available within a given institution isn’t always directly proportional to the institution’s size. Take student government as an example. If you want to be involved in student government, you have a better chance of making that happen in a college with 1,000 students than a college with 10,000 students. After all, there’s only one class president, vice president, and so on.

For sports, if you’re interested in playing NCAA Division I, your choice of school will probably be heavily influenced by scholarship offers, and there are some small colleges and universities with incredible Division I programs. However, sports are enriching and fun even when not being played at the absolute highest level. Smaller colleges and universities may not offer as large scholarships (or, indeed, any scholarships) for sports, but may offer more opportunities for you to play at the college level, simply because there are fewer students to compete with for spots on the team.

One major concern, especially for STEM students, is access to research opportunities. Large universities may offer a huge number of research opportunities compared to smaller universities, but scaling is still an issue. Those slots may be much more competitive just because there are so many more students applying for each slot. If you pick your small college carefully and your major is well supported there, it’s likely you’ll have a much better chance of scoring the research opportunity you want. Some of the largest colleges and universities have upwards of 50,000 undergraduate students, and even more graduate and doctoral students, all gunning for spots on the various research teams. It’s almost impossible for the number of research positions open to undergraduates to scale with that student population.

Class Size

Image of a classroom for our FAQ about small colleges vs. large universities Now, a small college does not always mean small class sizes, and a large college doesn’t always mean large class sizes. But it does seem to be the case that you find the smallest class sizes in the smaller colleges on average, unless you’re looking at ivy league universities. In Harvey Mudd College, which we mentioned earlier, the student-to-faculty ratio is just 8 to 1. It’s a lot harder to get lost in the crowd with a ratio like that.

This means more individual attention, both inside and outside the classroom, which can be great for your academic performance and progress. It’s important to note that an 8 to 1 student-to-faculty ratio doesn’t mean that all your classes will have eight students in them. Class sizes will vary, as there will be classes that all or most of the students in the college take. These classes will always be larger. This ratio does mean that classes for your major should be much smaller than they might be at a large university. At larger universities, the largest classes can be a hundred or more students. In many smaller colleges, the biggest classes have just 20-30 students.

Campus Environment

Image of a campus for our FAQ about small colleges vs. large universitiesBoth large and small colleges can be found in big cities, suburbs, and rural settings. If you want a small college, but don’t want to sacrifice the big city vibe, you can go to a small college located in a big city like New York, LA, or Philadelphia. However, if you prefer a small town vibe, going to a large college in a rural area won’t give you that. Sure, you’ll have easy access to the countryside and nature, but large colleges of 20,000-60,000 students are small cities unto themselves. Even if they’re in a rural location, neighborhoods and businesses pop up around the college to support the students, faculty, and staff who live there.

So if you want a small town, country feel to your college, picking a smaller college or university is the way to go. There’s more to your campus environment than just the location. Small colleges tend to be more close-knit communities, where almost everyone knows everyone else in their class. It makes it harder to get lost in the crowd and easier to form friendships with your fellow students. There may not be as many alumni connections after graduation. But chances are, if you apply for a job and one of your former classmates works there, they will know you, which is likely to increase your chances of getting the job.

Finance

Image of the world for our FAQ about small colleges vs. large universities Financial matters are often a huge concern when considering which college to attend. One might imagine that huge colleges with lots of money offer better financial aid packages, but that’s not always the case. Some small colleges have hefty price tags but offer quite good financial aid, especially need-based and merit-based financial aid. This is because they tend to spend less money on sports programs and research than larger colleges. This isn’t to say their sports or research programs are underfunded, it just means that a smaller college doesn’t necessarily need as large of a sports stadium as a large college.

Therefore, it doesn’t cost as much to maintain. In the case of research, smaller colleges often don’t have as many research programs, but the ones they do have tend to be more focused and specialized. This can leave more money to assist students with the cost of tuition. So, don’t let a college’s price tag put you off too much. You can apply to any college and see their financial aid package before you decide whether or not to enroll. Anything not covered by financial aid can generally be covered by student loans.

At that point it’s up to you to make the decision about how much student debt you are comfortable with and which college is the best fit for you, both academically and financially. Chances are, a smaller college’s financial aid department can be more helpful to you, because they aren’t as overwhelmed with students as financial aid departments at huge colleges are. Tuition at small colleges ranges in cost just as much as tuition at large colleges.

There are small state colleges with incredible tuition rates under $10,000 per year plus room and board, and there are small liberal arts colleges with tuition rates over $50,000 plus room and board. It is often the case that lower tuition means taking out less in student loans. However, that’s not always true, and depending on your needs and your major, it may be worth it in the long run to pay more for the school that best fits you. If finances are a major concern for you, you’re on the right website! Here at Great College Deals we have fantastic articles about affordable schools, and niche scholarships of every kind that can help you afford the education you want. So don’t be afraid to check out our other articles and rankings!

Related:

50 Best Deals on Competitive Small Colleges

Best Small Colleges for Athletic Types

Best Deals on Small Service-Oriented Colleges

GCD Staff
April 2021

This concludes our article explaining why a small college could be best for you.

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